Looks Like I Struck a Nerve

I started to notice a trend in the comments following my latest Forbes essay about the redundant nature of ethanol subsidies now that mandates via the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) are in place. Several comments […]

A Redundant Subsidy

My latest is up at Forbes right now. It is about the redundant nature of our current ethanol subsidy: A Redundant Subsidy An excerpt: As many ethanol producers have argued – the gasoline blender and […]

Prices of Various Energy Sources

As we continue to develop biomass as a renewable source of energy, it is important to keep the cost of energy in mind, because this has a very strong influence on the choices governments and […]

Does Ethanol Reduce Petroleum Imports?

One of the main arguments in favor of ethanol production in the U.S. is that it supports the goals of energy independence by getting us off of foreign oil. After all, we could just tell […]

Oil Companies Acquire More Ethanol Plants

As I noted in my essay Big Oil Buys Big Ethanol, I expected that we would see more oil companies buying up troubled ethanol assets. Per the Houston Chronicle, Sunoco has become the latest: Oil […]

How to Calculate Ethanol’s Value

There was a comment following the previous post that claimed that ethanol producers are making money – minus subsidies – at $1.75 a gallon. I attempted to set the record straight in the comments, but […]

Accoya, Ethanol, and an Anniversary

Coming up I have a book review ready to go for Green Algae Strategy: End Oil Imports And Engineer Sustainable Food And Fuel. However, I will wait another day or so to put that out […]

The 2009 EIA Energy Conference: Day 1

The Plenary I covered Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s comments in the previous post. Here, I will cover the rest of Day 1. This is not so much a comprehensive summary as it is a collection […]

The WSJ Hates Ethanol

Actually, according to them everybody hates it:Everyone Hates Ethanol I can assure them that corn farmers, ethanol producers, and ethanol lobbyists don’t hate ethanol. 🙂 But they are correct that a coalition of strange bedfellows […]

Government and Industry Incompetence

I fear that gross incompetence in our federal and state governments – as well as in some of our major industries – is going to make life much more challenging for our children and grandchildren. […]